Update: Tractor-trailer driver faces charges in 8-car pileup on I-80

Wednesday

Dec 12, 2012 at 10:23 AMDec 12, 2012 at 6:11 PM

An East Stroudsburg tractor-trailer driver faces charges after police say he caused a chain-reaction crash involving eight passenger vehicles on Interstate 80 East on Wednesday morning. Leesent Stapleton, 66, will be charged for failing to drive at a safe speed, which caused him to lose control of his truck as he approached stopped traffic in a construction zone.

An East Stroudsburg tractor-trailer driver faces charges after police say he caused a chain-reaction crash involving eight passenger vehicles on Interstate 80 East on Wednesday morning.

Leesent Stapleton, 66, will be charged for failing to drive at a safe speed, which caused him to lose control of his truck as he approached stopped traffic in a construction zone, according to state police at Swiftwater. The charges are pending the results of a vehicle safety inspection.

After his rig struck seven of the eight passenger vehicles involved, several of those vehicles were involved in chain-reaction crashes, police said.

No major injuries were reported in the crash, although two women – a passenger in one vehicle and the driver of another – were taken to Pocono Medical Center.

The wreck, which happened near Tannersville at 10:20 a.m., closed both eastbound lanes for about an hour.

Joan Franks was driving one of the vehicles involved in the crash. She was heading to Wind Gap to see her granddaughter when her vehicle was rear-ended.

“I was coming down (the hill) and before I knew it I was hit from the back and (pushed) over onto that side of the road, and then I hit another car,” she said.

Franks, of Pocono Pines, said she saw a tractor-trailer in her rear-view mirror as the crash happened. Her Chevrolet Tahoe had front- and rear-end damage, and the rear window was blown out.

She sustained a small cut on her face after her head hit the sun visor and pushed her eyeglasses into her face.

Wednesday's crash happened about a mile from the scene of Monday's fatal chain-reaction crash that involved four tractor-trailers and a passenger vehicle. That wreck killed Daniel L. Snyder, a truck driver from Youngstown, Ohio.